Friday, December 29, 2006

End of year reading stats

I've had a very good reading year. I did goof around and waste a lot of time that could have been spent reading, but I should have 74 books completed by New Year's Eve, and that's a respectable amount. I can remember being at a Christmas party a year or two after my daughter was born, complaining to my husband's cousin's ex-boyfriend that I'd managed to read only 20 books that year, and how shocked he was that anyone would think that 20 books wasn't a tremendous number of books to have been gotten through. There are people in this world who brag about not having read a book since 1973; this post is not for them.

Here's how the year breaks down statistically:

Nonfiction: 14

Novels: 50

Plays: 5

Works of poetry: 3

Short stories: 32 stories total, one story collection pending (Deborah Eisenberg's Twilight of the Superheroes should be finished by Sunday at the latest)

Picture book for adults: 1

Books bought and read: 24

Books bought and stockpiled: 75+

Library books: 31

Books "just published" in the last year or so: 33

Works I consider classics: 23

Books written prior to the 20th century: 11

Re-reads: 7

Books started that remain unfinished (not counting those currently in progress): 4

Books written by women: 28

5 out of 21 books from my priority list completed; three others started

I should have my list of favorites and biggest disappointments posted in a day or so.

I always thought I was a freak when it came to books and reading, until I discovered book bloggers. Now I can freely confess I have over 100 books on loan from the library and have 3-4 books on the go at the same time! Looking forward to reading your favourites.

When I told my sisters and mom over lunch the other day how many books I read they were sort of stunned. I always assumed that they read a lot too (granted not a ton, but more than say ten a year), but I guess that is not exactly the case. I guess if the average person has read 12 books in a year that is actually really good considering that most people haven't ready any at all this year! I don't think I honestly know how many books I have bought this year (and how many have actually been read!)--it is too scary for me to keep that sort of count. I'm looking forward to seeing your list of favorites!

I recently checked my list and noted that I read 70. That's about the same as last year, give or take a few. I counted the number of female authors I had read too and cringed because the men had trumped them by an embarrassingly significant percentage. Hopefully I can be a bit better about that next year.

I love your stats! Seeing things broken down into so many categories is fascinating. I didn't do this, but think I might try keeping track as I go along this coming year. It was a bother just going back reviewing each month's list. Easier to keep track as you go, I think. My favorite one of yours is "books bought and stockpiled!" :)

That is definitely a respectable amount! I love seeing lists of books. :) It took me a while, but I just finished putting together a list of all the books I read in 2006: all 110 of them! This is more than double what I read in 2005, due to various factors (explained in more detail in the post). They're broken down into categories, and I denoted the ones that I liked the best.

I'm inspired by your passion for reading. My goal for 2006 was to read 52 books; I fell far short at 37. However, it was probably the most reading I've done since I was little.Now, I'm a new mom, but my goal of 52 remains the same. We'll see how everything plays out with a newborn in the house! At this stage, our little boy seems fascinated to hear me read Francine Prose out loud, but I'm not sure how long that'll last. :)

did you ever have a familyby bill clegg
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The "family" titles are where I decided to begin my reading for the (Wo)Man Booker Shadow Panel, and Did You Ever Have a Family first because, I must admit, ...